Michelle Obama's "Whitey" album

Rumors are swirling around the conservative blogosphere that somewhere there exists an alleged videotape of Michelle Obama using the slur "whitey." Don't believe it.

A blogger named Larry Johnson claimed he had five good sources who had seen the tape (as anyone who has gone to high school can verify, when five independent people all hear the same rumor, it has to be true). Yet Johnson has produced no hard evidence to back up his claim.

Michelle Obama: “Once again, the white man keeps us down, what’s up with Whitey, Why’d he attack Iraq, Why’d he let Katrina happen, Why’d he leave millions of children behind. This is the legacy the white man gives us.”

Other have suggested that if any tape exists, Michelle is being misheard:

How you’d say it:

Why’d he cut folks off medicaid?
Why’d he let New Orleans drown?
Why’d he do nothing about Jena?
Why’d he put us in Iraq for no reason?

How Larry Johnson wants you to hear it:

Whitie cut folks off medicaid?
Whitie let New Orleans drown?
Whitie do nothing about Jena?
Whitie put us in Iraq for no reason?

But as has been pointed out, this formulation originated in a Fark thread:

Here's whats gonna happen, the tape is supposedly a speech Michelle made concerning Bush et al. regarding Katrina. In it she says "Why'd he..." several times, which given the quality of the audio, sounds like "whitey". And so will begin the great tin-foil hat of bonanza of the summer of '08

“We have seen this before. There is dirt and lies that are circulated in e-mails and they pump them out long enough until finally you, a mainstream reporter, asks me about it,” Obama said to the McClatchy reporter during a press conference aboard his campaign plane. “That gives legs to the story. If somebody has evidence that myself or Michelle or anybody has said something inappropriate, let them do it.”

So far, there's no word from Snopes--though there is a very interesting article about Michelle Obama's thesis--but I'm going to chalk this up as an urban legend until someone actually produces the evidence. I write about it here only so you know the facts before some conservative friend or family member tells you, "Didja hear Michelle Obama is a reverse racist?"